Report card! YOUR Premier League team marked out of 10 after the first 10 matches
Headmaster Seb Stafford-Bloor runs the rule over each club, picks a star pupil as well as an area – or player – where improvement is needed. See us after class, Everton
Arsenal: 6/10
As predictable a start to the season as could have been imagined. One dreadful, supporter-melting loss, a couple of encouraging performances, but nothing to suggest that they’re really ready to compete for the title. Talented but very obviously limited.
Top of the class: Hector Bellerin, who seems to be growing in influence every week. If the Spaniard was formerly just an incendiary full-back, now he seems to set his side’s tone with and without the ball, from the right side or even, occasionally, the left. He’s now Arsenal’s spark plug.
Must do better: Theo Walcott has never looked more peripheral. He's played just 47 minutes of Premier League football so far, and while his loyalists presumably cling to the belief that a surge is imminent - as it has been for about 10 years - he does now seem like Europa League fodder. Alex Iwobi has moved ahead of him in the squad hierarchy, while Reiss Nelson is developing fast and looks a fabulous prospect. Walcott needs a move.
Bournemouth: 4/10
Ropey. There’s been an improvement in recent weeks and Eddie Howe has started to show some clear tactical growth, but they’re 19th for a reason. The knock on Bournemouth has always been that they can’t keep clean sheets and that remains the case, but they’re also now struggling at the other end: only Crystal Palace have scored fewer goals. Palace!
Top of the class: Asmir Begovic. A summer signing that was absolutely necessary and one which, so far, looks to have been worth every penny. The defensive problems remain, but Bournemouth’s goals against column is relatively healthy and that’s largely due to Begovic. An excellent goalkeeper playing very well.
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Must do better: Jordon Ibe has shown some improvement and he’s certainly been better this season than he was last, but for someone so talented he is far too wasteful. He had an excellent game against Brighton in the middle of September, but that remains the highpoint of another fallow season. Remember how people used to talk about this guy when he was at Liverpool? More of that, please.
Brighton: 7/10
In the main, Brighton have decided to dance with the players who brought them to the party. They haven’t spent heavily on arrival, and so this season was always likely to be a struggle. However, very quietly they’ve become quite solid, losing just once in the whole of October and conceding the fewest goals of any team currently in the bottom half. It’s to Chris Hughton’s great credit that they don’t currently look like one of the worst three teams in the division.
Top of the class: Pascal Gross. A brilliant signing, and one of the best players in the division through the first 10 games. Ingolstadt were relegated from the Bundesliga last season and that was very much to Brighton’s gain: they snatched Gross for a nominal fee and he’s repaid them with (already) the most statistically creative season of his top-flight career.
Must do better: When January arrives, Chris Hughton must be supplied with another forward. At the time of writing, Brighton have won three games having only scored 10 goals. Impressive in a way, but not the kind of statistic which seems sustainable over the long term. It’s very difficult to see them surviving if they remain solely reliant on Tomer Hemed and Glenn Murray.
Burnley: 8/10
Sean Dyche and his players are being done an injustice. Monday night’s win over Newcastle took them into seventh place and level on points with Liverpool, but their form continues to be dismissed as good fortune. They concede a lot of shots per game, more than any other team in the Premier League in fact, and yet have only conceded nine times. It’s a statistical anomaly, yes, and a regression to mid-table seems likely eventually, but that theorising has overshadowed what has been a very fine start to the season.
Top of the class: Ben Mee and James Tarkowski. It’s difficult to compartmentalise Burnley’s success or distill it down to individual performances. That said, the centre-back pairing has been pivotal. Dyche has constructed a side who are particularly good at withstanding pressure, and that depends on a reliable defensive core. Both Mee and Tarkowski have been outstanding.
Must do better: Burnley have to be more creative. One of the shocks of the summer was that Dyche allowed George Boyd to leave the club. Even though the player was probably beyond his prime, he was one of the few original thinkers in Burnley’s midfield and provided a layer of craft which they’re now without. The fear is that if that shots-to-goals ratio starts to change, more shipped at the other end will be necessary and something more adventurous will be required. Whether Burnley have that change of gear is questionable.
Chelsea: 6/10
It’s all looking a bit shaky, isn’t it? Antonio Conte’s pre-season complaints sounded hollow at the time, but the first 10 games have shown Chelsea’s cracks. N’Golo Kante’s injury hasn’t helped, but clubs of this size shouldn’t be so dependent on individual players and Chelsea’s inability to cope with his absence has been damning of their recruitment.
Top of the class: Cesar Azpilicueta. This is about context: Chelsea have not defended well over these first 10 games and, as mentioned, Kante’s injury has been particularly destabilising. Nevertheless, Azpilicueta has been the only member of Conte’s backline to have maintained his previous standards. Such a good player that, really, it’s tempting to believe that he could play any position on the pitch.
Must do better: Everyone involved in recruitment. Conte’s moaning was easy to ignore, but he had a point. Chelsea have been caught and passed by both Manchester clubs within the space of a single transfer window and, although enabled by financial advantage in each case, that shouldn’t have been possible . They’ve bought good players - Tiemoue Bakayoko in particular - but this squad isn’t its predecessor’s equal.
Crystal Palace: 3/10
Had this been written three weeks ago, this mark would have been an incontestable zero: not just for the performances on the pitch, but the mess of a pre-season which lay behind them. A month later, the panic isn’t over, but there’s a semblance of hope. Roy Hodgson has the team playing a brand of football with which they’re familiar and comfortable, Wilfried Zaha is fit again, while goals and points are slowly coming.
Top of the class: He’s made just four appearances, but it’s still Wilfried Zaha. There’s the obvious point to make: he’s the club’s finest player and since he returned from injury, Palace have looked far more dangerous in front of goal (it’s no coincidence that they didn’t score once while he was sidelined). But there’s a secondary benefit too, in that the other players respond to him being on the pitch. Every run he makes and every defender he knots up sends a ripple of belief through this team. Given the circumstances, that’s invaluable.
Must do better: Jason Puncheon. Incidental, which is surprising because he’s actually a very good player. In fact, you’ll find plenty of Palace supporters who believe that Puncheon is one of the most underrated midfielders in the division. Not on this evidence, unfortunately, because he’s barely left a mark on 2017/18 so far. Is he a victim of his surroundings? Almost certainly, but he’s one of the leaders in that dressing room and it’s fair to have expected better.
Everton: 2/10
Just awful. Ronald Koeman is already gone and David Unsworth is currently making a very weak case to succeed him. Really, a total failure: the summer recruitment now looks hopeless, many of the team selections have been baffling, while performances seem to be getting worse by the week. It’s November and a club that spent £150m in the last window are in the relegation places. It’s not an early season anomaly anymore.
Top of the class: A tough choice. Dominic Calvert-Lewin takes it by an eyelash from Jordan Pickford. Calvert-Lewin has been one of the few positives at Goodison Park and his industry, skill and intent have been in stark contrast to his surroundings.
Must do better: Ashley Williams. But can he? There's a strong chance he's gone. Once a very fine, robust defender, but now error-prone and as a mobile as a vending machine.
Huddersfield: 7/10
Pretty good. David Wagner’s team have had to take a few shots to the chin - most savagely in the 4-0 loss to Tottenham - but are keeping their feet in the Premier League. More impressive than turning over Manchester United (which felt a bit too much like a cup final to be instructive in the long term) has been the overall standard of their defending. Four clean sheets out of 10 is mightily impressive given the context.
Top of the class: The obvious pick - Aaron Mooy. Wagner hasn’t constructed a team out of no-hopers by any means, but Mooy is the one with the craft - and is actually the player that most newly promoted teams lack. The one who doesn’t get flustered; the one able able to process and unpick games in spite of the quicker speed. The Australian has been excellent.
Must do better: Tom Ince. Fair? Perhaps not, but Ince has always been working against his own reputation. Nobody at Huddersfield really deserves to be marked down, but he’s been disappointing. The uninhibited, slashing winger who looked so promising at Brighton still looks like a Championship-level footballer. Over time, exposure to better defenders may do him good and there’s obviously plenty of time left for him to rediscover what he was once thought to have, but there’s a nagging suspicion that this may be as good as he gets.
Leicester: 5/10
Generally poor, but likely to improve quickly. Claude Puel has replaced Craig Shakespeare and they have now recorded back-to-back wins. Unlike many of the sides around them, Leicester haven’t exhibited a single crippling weakness; rather they’ve just been the victims of their own inefficiency. A bad start, certainly, but no reason to believe it’s a permanent condition – they've already played six of last season's top seven, after all.
Top of the class: Perhaps Jamie Vardy, with his six goals from 10 appearances, but Christian Fuchs and Harry Maguire both make a strong case. More recently, however, nobody has been more impressive than Ben Chilwell, who played further forward against Everton and was fearlessly excellent.
Must do better: Kelechi Iheanacho. Seven appearances, 200 minutes on the pitch, but only two shots in the Premier League. Iheanacho’s potential isn’t up for debate, but those numbers aren’t very ‘£25m signing’, are they?
Liverpool: 7/10
Ten games and still no clear sense of who or what Liverpool are. Are they the side that dismantled Arsenal so thrillingly in August, or the weak-spirited team that lost by five at the Etihad and conceded four calamitous goals to Tottenham 10 days ago? Both, it seems.
Top of the class: Sadio Mane. It’s been said many times, but Liverpool really are an entirely different side with and without Mane. Tellingly, he’s been their most powerful attacking element despite only appearing in five games. Mohamed Salah has generally been productive, albeit wasteful too, and Philippe Coutinho has had his moments, but Mane is the energy, threat – and so often the finishing touch.
Must do better: Ultimately, Jurgen Klopp. If the defensive errors could be attributed to a single player, then Klopp could distance himself from the problem. As it is, it seems to be a systemic weakness and a vulnerability which afflicts any Liverpool player selected in a defensive position. Dejan Lovren is error-prone, as are Simon Mignolet, Joel Matip and Alberto Moreno – but the German built the structure within which they all continue to flounder.
Manchester City: 9/10
Terrifying. The infusion of talent has helped, particularly in defence, but City’s attacking movement has often been devastating. The team as a whole has improved dramatically from a year ago, but this is also a side littered with individual development: Raheem Sterling might be playing the best football of his career, so too Leroy Sane, John Stones and Fernandinho. No caveats: they’ve been awesome.
Top of the class: Kevin De Bruyne. Absolutely, unequivocally, inarguably the best player in the country at the moment. De Bruyne has always had precise delivery and always been able to penetrate opposition lines from deep, varied positions, but rarely before in such strong concentration. Even now, after only 10 games, it will take an event very unlikely or unlucky to deny him the PFA Player of the Year award.
Must do better: Naturally, there’s nothing beyond a series of very tenuous complaints. It might have been nice to see a little more of Bernardo Silva, super player that he is, and the mess of Jadon Sancho leaving for Borussia Dortmund will look very clumsy in a few years’ time. Nothing serious, though.
Manchester United: 8/10
Very good, very productive, albeit in that distinctive Jose Mourinho way which has made it easy to resent. Romelu Lukaku has been a success, Marcus Rashford looks to be developing into a very fine player and, when everyone is fit and available, the midfield axis of Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan looks like the best unit in the country.
Top of the class: Romelu Lukaku. It would be a mistake to believe that the debate is over and that the war is won on Lukaku, but he’s certainly started the season brilliantly. A couple of indifferent performances aside, he’s been as effective as anyone could have hoped. Seven goals and three assists from 10 games is very hard to argue with.
Must do better: The old chestnut of Mourinho in big games. It’s an incredibly dull topic, but United’s performance at Anfield was reprehensible. As Tottenham showed a week later - a team, of course, who United have just beaten - Klopp’s side were there for the taking. Mourinho was guilty of tactical cowardice that day and if that seems like a pedantic complaint, then just just look at the gap at the top of the table. This Manchester City team will have to be matched blow for blow and, so far, United are second-best in their own two-team mini-league.
Newcastle: 8/10
Given the mood which seeped out of the club over the summer, the first three months have been remarkably successful - success which has grown Rafael Benitez’s reputation for being able to do a lot with little. Newcastle aren’t the most flamboyant team in the country, but they’re certainly one of the most compact and disciplined. Given the obstacles to progress which Benitez and his players have encountered, this has been a really excellent start.
Top of the class: Easily Jamaal Lascelles. He was the one who broke the trend of indifference during the relegation season; the one who was willing to speak out against what he saw and heard around him. Inevitably, he’s setting the example this season: he scored back-to-back winning goals in the victories over Swansea and Stoke, and has been the constant in a defence which has had to adjust its way around multiple injuries.
Must do better: Not original, but still relevant: they need goals from somewhere. Joselu was signed as a placeholder at the top of the formation and, actually, he’s performed far better than expected. The Spaniard has never been prolific, though, and is not a natural finisher. Newcastle still look healthy and share the scoring burden evenly (eight different players have netted in the Premier League) but that nobody in the squad has managed more than two goals after 10 games is obviously a concern.
Southampton: 5/10
Largely unchanged. The Virgil van Dijk saga rumbled over the summer and that certainly didn’t help, but Mauricio Pellegrino has been unable to shift the needle so far. Southampton remain hesitant in attack and their formulaic approach to scoring goals is much as it was under Claude Puel.
Top of the class: He wasn’t quite the midfielder they needed – the Saints required someone more vertical – but Mario Lemina is still a terrific player and has quickly formed one of the Premier League’s better combinations with Oriol Romeu. Southampton’s recruiting standards have slipped in recent seasons and their various misfires have created an imbalanced squad, but this is proving an excellent signing.
Must do better: The English core. With the exception of Ryan Bertrand, Southampton’s biggest underperformers are all British players. Nathan Redmond has had a blunt start to the season and now been replaced in the line-up by Sofiane Boufal; James Ward-Prowse is yet to really secure a starting place; and Fraser Forster is locked within a dreadful stretch of form which dates back almost a year. The team needs strengthening in January, certainly, but an improvement from within would cure at least some of the issues.
Stoke: 4/10
Stoke’s two best performances of the season were live on television and against two of the biggest clubs in the country - and the draw with Manchester United and win over Arsenal continue to shape the perception of what they are. The win over Watford helps, but there are suspicions that it was more about their opposition than their own performance.
Top of the class: Jack Butland, almost by default. He’s conceded more goals than any other goalkeeper in the league, seven of them at Manchester City, but has somehow managed to survive with his reputation intact.
Must do better: Saido Berahino. Still without a goal for the club in 20 appearances, and now with a missed penalty to his name. Berahino is talented and his current form represents a malaise rather than a permanent regression, but he needs to alter his career’s trajectory very quickly indeed.
Swansea: 4/10
Last season’s successful end-of-season run is fading in the memory and, slowly, the Liberty Stadium natives are growing restless. Paul Clement may have built a sturdier team than the one he inherited, but it has often looked hopelessly one-dimensional and bereft of attacking ideas.
Top of the class: Tammy Abraham. Swansea have only scored six goals this season and Abraham has four of them - descriptive of their plight as well as his swift development. He’s proving the worth of firs- team minutes to developing players, but also the extent of his potential. His goals have caught the eye, but his first touches at the top of the Swansea formation are excellent and he’s more than useful in the channels, too.
Must do better: Creatively. Clement succeeded in toughening Swansea, but at the cost of neutering the team. That has to change. Swansea will likely always be outmatched at this level, but if they can play with more imagination - a lot more - around their opponents' box, they won’t be nearly as predictable.
Tottenham: 7/10
Not bad. Within the context of the past it’s been excellent, but it’s also a campaign blighted by missed opportunities. Chelsea should have been beaten at Wembley, Burnley and Swansea too, while sloppiness allowed Manchester United to make off with the points last weekend. Tottenham remain on the cusp of being a truly excellent side, but they’re not quite there.
Top of the class: Harry Kane. Honourable mentions for Ben Davies, Jan Vertonghen and Harry Winks, but Kane has incontestably been Mauricio Pochettino’s most valuable player and without him Spurs look like an entirely different side. Still formidable, still capable, but without the vast range of abilities which Kane brings to the top of the pitch.
Must do better: Dele Alli has been fine. Reasonable. OK. For any other player that wouldn’t be cause for concern, but Alli is special and is yet to show it this season. He’s scored goals (against Liverpool and West Ham) but his overall game hasn’t lived up to its billing and, to an extent, that’s had to be disguised by the performances of Kane and Christian Eriksen. Too many tricks and aggravation, not enough substance. That will change – he’s too good for it not to – but he must become more efficient (enter ‘late miss at Old Trafford’ into the evidence).
Watford: 8/10
Lose marks for their mini collapse at Stamford Bridge, for being one of several sides steamrolled by Manchester City, and for that appalling loss to Stoke. Still, there isn’t currently a bigger success story in the league. Marco Silva has been as good as advertised, building his new side around a strong, three-man midfield and transplanting the qualities which very nearly kept Hull up onto a deeper, stronger and more talented squad.
Top of the class: Far from expecting him to be pivotal this season, most could be forgiven for having forgotten that Abdoulaye Doucoure was even still at Watford. His superficial value has been obvious, scoring four times from midfield, but Doucoure’s resurgence has really been emblematic of how balanced this side is. Of equal worth on both sides of the ball, he’s been one of the standouts across the entire league.
Must do better: Will Hughes, who has played just 10 minutes of Premier League football. He’s too talented to be a bench filler, yet his failure to make any impression suggests that his adaption to Silva’s methods has been slower than most.
West Brom: 4/10
Boring. There’s no other description. West Brom aren’t really good enough either with or without the ball right now, and that close-ish defeat to Manchester City over the weekend shouldn’t disguise that Tony Pulis is in a bit of trouble. His unique selling point is that he provides a virtual guarantee against relegation, but eventually ambition has to prevail.
Top of the class: Tough, because West Brom’s players tend to blend into each other and individually there’s little to get excited by. However, Grzegorz Krychowiak has looked the best of a limited bunch and been a necessary addition to the midfield following Darren Fletcher’s summer departure.
Must do better: Pulis himself, really. His team have occasionally threatened to play some attacking football, but have for the most part been dreadfully blunt - and by design, too. There’s nothing new to be said: he is what he is and there won’t be many neutrals queueing up to watch his side play.
West Ham: 3/10
A mess. A sitting duck manager waiting to be sacked, a batch of underwhelming summer signings and a set of largely dreadful results. Added to which, of course, is the perpetual chatter from the boardroom and week-to-week reassessments of Slaven Bilic’s position.
Top of the class: Javier Hernandez. He only does one thing, but he does it extremely well. Four goals from 10 starts isn’t a spectacular return, but Hernandez is awarded extra points for being the only one of the club’s new signings who actually looks like he wants to be there.
Must do better: Marko Arnautovic. Just dreadful - a caricature of the indifferent football millionaire. Elbowing Jack Stephens in the neck at St Mary’s remains his only definitive contribution to his new team’s season. At times, he’s looked almost flippant and that just about gives him the ‘edge’ over the disappointing Joe Hart.
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Seb Stafford-Bloor is a football writer at Tifo Football and member of the Football Writers' Association. He was formerly a regularly columnist for the FourFourTwo website, covering all aspects of the game, including tactical analysis, reaction pieces, longer-term trends and critiquing the increasingly shady business of football's financial side and authorities' decision-making.
